Before Miss Bowles could recover from her astonishment the child was gone.
"Well, now, I never did!" exclaimed the housekeeper, blushing till the hue of her face was like that of a brick fresh from the kiln; "it's a great while since I've had a kiss before, and it raly is a refreshment."
With this observation, Salina drew one hand across her lips and bent over the tin oven again.
It was in this way that the orphans commenced life in their new homes.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE EVENING VISIT.
They have met, they have met—with a warm embrace,
Those panting hearts beat free again;
And joy beams out in each glowing face,—
Together, they fear not grief or pain!
A week elapsed, and Mary Fuller had heard nothing of her little friend, nor ventured to hint at the keen desire to see her, which grew stronger every day.
One night, when this wish was becoming almost irresistible, and the child sat silent and drooping by the kitchen window, she heard a sweeping sound among the cabbage-heads, and, peering keenly out, saw a shadow moving through them.
Mary's heart began to leap, and as the shadow disappeared round a corner of the house, her eyes, bright with expectation, were turned towards the back door. A footstep sounded from the porch, followed by a light tread that seemed but the faintest echo of the first.